width=”100″ height=”100″ border=”0″ title=”Donkeys_2″ alt=”Donkeys_2″ src=”http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/files/images/donkeys_2.jpg” /> Check out a National Review columnist’s riff on the Kansas elections. Sort of. It takes some doing, but under the headline "The Red-State Freak Show," Denis Broyles manages to mention the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Dr. George Tiller’s wealth, the European Union, French men and Nazis. A sample: Democrat Paul Morrison and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius "are both staunch advocates of unrestricted abortions and unrestricted embryonic stem cell research, positions the local press describes as ‘moderate.’ Their rivals, such as Jim Barnett, the mild-mannered Emporia physician and GOP gubernatorial candidate, are often portrayed as conservative flakes. But if Kansas were in Europe, it would be a rogue state, isolated from others by the weirdness of its social policies."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
width=”100″ height=”122″ border=”0″ title=”Nkoreabolton_1″ alt=”Nkoreabolton_1″ src=”http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/files/images/nkoreabolton_1.jpg” /> The United Nations sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear test won’t bring dictator Kim Jong Il to his knees anytime soon. Some of the measures, such as cutting off luxury goods (whiskey, expensive cars, etc.) to the leadership elite, aren’t likely to be more than a nuisance.
But the sanctions were still worth doing, because they send a political message that the world is united in opposing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and is willing to work together to further isolate the rogue nation.
On that point, it was a good sign Monday that China — a question mark on sanctions enforcement — was inspectingcargo bound for the North. But the international community must be prepared to ratchet up the pressure further if it wants North Korea to return to the bargaining table.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
I wasn’t thinking of the Wizard of Oz when I drew this week’s contest cartoon, but some of you made that connection. In fact, it worked for Shelly White whose winning caption can be viewed by clicking on the image here. Obviously my inspiration was those Halloween decorations that have become popular over the last couple of years. But we are never very far from our Ozzie heritage here in Kansas. Or from road construction, as of late. Similar to Shelly’s caption was one from former winner Brad Allen of Wichita: "So much for the yellow brick road!" We liked Shelly’s slightly more because it worked in the orange cone element from the drawing. The very prolific Richard Julius of Belle Plaine made an interesting comparison: "And I thought finding an exit strategy from Iraq was tough!" From Linda Stowe came "I should have turned off my cell phone!" Wichita’s Bruce Cole, probably our grand national champion winner, based on the number of times he’s triumphed, submitted "I think I found the only tree they didn’t remove for the Water Walk." Larry Staton of Wichita said "I thought this was a fly-over!" Former winner Karen Wallace was in a similar vein with "So much for the fly-over concept," and she also sent in "Hello, On Star. I have a problem." Angela Ceradsky came up with "Wow. A road map to ‘No Child Left Behind’!" Going back to the Oz theme was Pam Hanson of Wichita: "Just how did Dorothy get back here?" Wichita’s Nan Hauser was more in mind of Cowtown than of Oz: "I was just following Rooster Cogburn who swore he know the way!" And, finally, we have the inevitable puns. From Pamela Vang: "Witch-ita. Home of the very brave." Also from Wichita, Chandra Cain said "I didn’t know ‘witch’ way to go!" From Rob Junod: "I’m extremely ‘impressed’ with all the new wicked ‘witch-way-to-go-signs’!" And from former winner Larry England: Yep. Kellogg and Mid-Continent. Fly one now, get one tree." Ouch.
Posted by Richard Crowson
Before South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-Moon was named the next secretary-general of the United Nations Friday, National Review Online editor Kathryn Jean Lopez suggested the job should go to someone like soon to be ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar or even President George W. Bush. Her reasoning? All three are not afraid to recognize the threats to peace from Iraq to North Korea and all points in between.
Blair, during his exit speech to the Labour Party conference, defended the strategic alliance he took with Bush. “This terrorism is not our fault, we didn’t cause it . . . it’s not the consequence of foreign policy, it’s an attack on our way of life.” He isn’t afraid to call evil “evil.” Likewise, Aznar, in response to the Muslim attacks following Pope Benedict’s sermon, said, “The West did not attack Islam, they attacked us.” And Lopez cited the Bush U.N. address in September 2002 denouncing the conduct of the Iraqi regime as a threat to the United Nations and to peace.
Posted by Angie Holladay
“In a free society, it should be perfectly acceptable to question what is taught and to allow for differences of opinion,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett said last week, defending the Kansas State Board of Education’s actions on evolution. “I believe it’s a disservice to limit the scope of what can be considered.”
Fine, but that wasn’t the issue. Teachers and students were already free to question and debate the merits of evolution, as long as schools didn’t promote religion.
But the state board’s job was to set public school science standards for the entire state. And such statewide standards should be based on what the experts consider to be the best science, not the personal religious views of board members.
Would Barnett, a physician, want medical school standards to include remedies that nearly the entire medical community rejects?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
You’d think a group called Americans for Prosperity would be heartened by an indicator of, well, prosperity. But when state revenue collections were $94 million more than estimated for September, the state director of Americans for Prosperity Kansas, Alan Cobb, told Associated Press: “It’s not bad news, but it means that our estimators didn’t do a very good job.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The perennial problem facing voters and columnists before an election is trying to decide if the candidate made a specific claim or not on a particular issue. If the prediction of Google founder and CEO Eric Schmidt (in photo) comes true, you will only need to “Google” the candidate’s name for an online “truth predictor” test.
Schmidt feels that most candidates don’t realize the impact the Internet will have on the future of politics and the power of the Web in campaigns and deciding elections. This includes unflattering videos on YouTube, which Google is buying. According to research giant Pew Internet, as of August, 26 million Americans or 13 percent of all Americans over the age of 18 logged on for information on candidates and elections. Of course, the question is whether the information they are finding online is really the truth.
Posted by Angie Holladay
